MQM, PSP to protest against census results

KARACHI - Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan and Pak Sarzameen Party on Tuesday rejected the results of the sixth population census and announced staging protest against what they termed as an act to deprive Karachiites of their basic rights.

Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club along with Senior Deputy Convener Amir Khan, Deputy Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and others, Farooq Sattar rejected the initial results of census process and announced to hold a peaceful rally at Mazar-e-Quaid against it on September 10.

He said that after the census results, it is being told to the different ethnicities of the urban areas of the Sindh province that they are third grade citizens of the country. “They are being made red Indians in their country and are being deprived of their political, social, economic and other rights,” he said.

He said that an unwritten constitution is being written through this census process in which the people living in urban areas of the Sindh province are being told that they would neither have any justice nor they be treated as equal citizens and all doors of employment would be closed on them.

Sattar said that there is a list of sacrifices given by children of those who migrated for Pakistan but their problems are still not ending.

He said that they have been demanded through this census process to once again give their share to others and the citizens of urban Sindh were told regarding their value in the eye of other people of the country.

“This is not the first time that urban population was shown less in the census process instead it happened in all last four census process held in the country.”

He said that showing less population in urban centres of the Sindh province would have an adverse effect on the economy of the country and it is ploy to play with the security and stability of the country.

He said that Nadra in a written response on a query from Senator Taj Haider had informed that the population of Karachi exceeds 20 million. He lashed out at Census commission Asif Bajwa and said that his Mohajir and Pakistan enmity was evident from such acts.

“Former Corps Commander Naveed Mukhtar had also mentioned the population of the Sindh province as over 20 million,” he said and asked the chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa to respond to the SOS call from them and intervene into the matter.

He said that they would invite all political parties for the rally on September 10 against this census results and would not use MQM flags in it if MQM coordination committee would permit it. “Instead we will be using white flags to give impression that Karcahiites and other urban centres of the province are united for this cause.

“We will invite all political parties including PTI, Jamaat-i-Islami, PPP, ANP and other political groups to join us for this cause and now they could not boycott it like they had boycotted multi-party conference as it is an unusual important issue for the survival of the people of the urban centres of the Sindh province.

He further invited MQM-Haqiqi and PSP for the rally and said that hopefully they would also join them for the cause and make it as one of the biggest public gatherings in the history of the city.

He further announced to submit memorandum of understanding at different centres of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics over this injustice against them.

Speaking at a press conference at Pakistan House PSP Leader Anees Advocate said that the initial results of sixth census process was disappointing and people from Karachi to Wana had rejected it. “We do not express any doubts on the intensions of anyone instead we will term it a major administrative negligence,” he said.

Anees also announced staging protest against the census results. He said that Rs 30 billion was spent on this census process and several others lay down their lives during this process and after day night struggle from census staff, a hope emerged among the people that their grievances would be addressed after it. However, he said unfortunately this does not happened and even more confusion is being created after this process.

He said that if population of the 18 towns of Karachi is counted then it turns out be over 25 million and not counting over 10 million of the population of the city was aimed at depriving people of their rights.

He said all over the world people moved to urban centers from rural areas but the census results indicate the opposite.

“The population of Karachi [according to the census results] increased only 63 per cent in the previous 19 years while that of Lahore dramatically soared by 116 per cent. This is incomprehensible,” he remarked.

He urged the military to take into consideration the reservations expressed by the people of Karachi, Fata and Balochistan on the census results and also requested political parties to urgently deal with this matter.